burton--1001-nights--sample

As sways her gait I smile at hips so big * And weep to see the waist they
bear so slight.
When the Porter looked upon her his wits were waylaid, and his senses
were stormed so that his crate went nigh to fall from his head, and he
said to himself, “Never have I in my life seen a day more blessed than
this day!” Then quoth the lady-portress to the lady-cateress, “Come in
from the gate and relieve this poor man of his load.”
So the provisioner went in followed by the portress and the Porter
and went on till they reached a spacious ground-floor hall, built with
admirable skill and beautified with all manner colours and carvings;
with upper balconies and groined arches and galleries and cupboards
and recesses whose curtains hung before them. In the midst stood a
great basin full of water surrounding a fine fountain, and at the upper
end on the raised daïs was a couch of juniper-wood set with gems and
pearls, with a canopy like mosquito-curtains of red satin-silk looped up
with pearls as big as filberts and bigger. Thereupon sat a lady bright of
blee, with brow beaming brilliancy, the dream of philosophy, whose
eyes were fraught with Babel’s gramarye and her eyebrows were arched
as for archery; her breath breathed ambergris and perfumery and her
lips were sugar to taste and carnelian to see. Her stature was straight
as the letter I and her face shamed the noon-sun’s radiancy; and she
was even as a galaxy, or a dome with golden marquetry or a bride
displayed in choicest finery or a noble maid of Araby. Right well of her
sang the bard when he said: —
Her smiles twin rows of pearls display * Chamomile-buds or rimey
spray
Her tresses stray as night let down * And shames her light the dawn
o’ day.
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